Chapter 353: Emma

"This oil painting is quite nice, this bow is not bad either, and this wooden instrument stand."

Heroine Emma was having a wonderful time; the changes of the era brought forth too many new things, and she happened to be someone who loved change.

The Air Queen, going by the alias Mary, had earned quite a bit of money, but she spent it all clean in a short time.

A Heroine who cared nothing for money, her time in the present world was very brief, and she spent without any restraint.

In the temporarily rented house, too many messy collections had already been piled up; most were not worth much money, yet they were all new gadgets produced over these few centuries.

New schools of artistic painting, improved woodworking for auxiliary aiming, new instrument structures—these things that outsiders took for granted, but before Emma, they radiated a full sense of freshness.

Even those trendy picture frames, small toys, and little tunes from a decade or so ago were fresh gadgets worth collecting for her.

And if this small hobby was merely spending money, the next hobby would be of a level that would bankrupt her outright given her meager savings.

"Little cutie, warm, sticky, so great! Bought!"

After buying this mutated fur-ball creature from an alchemist on the roadside, Emma acquired her twenty-seventh strange pet.

In this era, collecting dead things actually didn't cost much; collecting living things was truly expensive.

The dwelling prepared for the new pet, the feed, and the little toys, etc., had accumulated into no small sum.

"Uh, finished eating again? This isn't the wilds; hunting is so troublesome."

Among her pets were a primitive war elephant that could serve as a war machine, a six-ton carnivorous sub-dragon, and a group of demonized gorillas; the meat and vegetables filling a small room were only enough for them to eat for one day.

Grain, in this era, was quite precious.

To be so extravagant as to feed so many "pets," it probably exceeded the limits of even the nobility.

"This can't go on... I'll go take a short-term job."

Her time was limited, so she could only accept some short-term missions; considering the income she needed and her power level.

"Are there any missions related to dragons, demons, or giant beasts? Preferably one-time hunting missions."

The most critical short-term high-difficulty missions, she actively sought out from the adventurers' office.

For the office, this was naturally a good thing; too many deadly missions were waiting for people to get busy.

And recently, there was a dragon-hunting commission with extremely high danger; naturally, this commission from Li En fell into her hands.

This was the causality of fate, and also a kind of inevitability.

After agreeing on the time, she went to meet the client.

"Eh, this house doesn't look like it belongs to someone who can afford this kind of money."

She didn't have any discriminatory thoughts, just looked curiously at this "commoner district" small building.

Someone who could put up the bounty for a "dragon-slaying mission," why would they live in such a small building?

Observing and thinking about the surroundings was an instinct for people like them; any slight incongruity could become a sign of crisis. In a certain sense, this was an overly realistic paranoia about being victimized.

"A trap? Cultists?"

She stood outside the small building, her long ears twitching subconsciously, gathering information from the surroundings.

The next moment, she realized.

"A Paladin? This scent, a pure Oath Paladin? No wonder..." Having smelled the scents of "Radiance" and "Oath," Emma filled in everything with her imagination.

She scratched her head and found an explanation.

Since those masochistic guys lived here, it probably wasn't a trap.

"If it's a Paladin, then it's a mission to subdue an evil dragon? That should be a bit easier." A true veteran adventurer often worried not about the mission, but about teammates and employers.

As opponents, stubborn Paladins were very troublesome, but as teammates... actually, they were quite troublesome too, but at least one didn't have to worry about a knife in the back.

"Hey, is anyone there? I'm here to take the mission."

Emma had already heard the sound of swords clashing inside, smelled the scent of Radiance in the air, and even vaguely felt the waves of "Evil-Cleaving Slash."

Pretending not to know, she was still estimating the possible reward; Paladins were trustworthy, but generally had no money, and if they encountered an extreme one, the distribution of spoils (looting) would also be problematic.

She slowly walked in, and then saw the back of someone who was bare-chested, earnestly swinging a sword.

So familiar, just a glance.